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12 1923

ELECTORAL ACT, 1923

PART VI.

Dáil Constituencies.

Dáil Constituencies.

50. —(1) The Dáil shall consist of 153 members, who shall be returned by the constituencies named in the first column in the Eighth Schedule to this Act.

(2) Each of the areas named in the second column in the First Part of the said Eighth Schedule shall be a borough constituency, and each of the counties or groups or portions of counties or counties and boroughs named in the second column in the Second Part of the said Eighth Schedule shall be a county constituency, and each of the Universities named in the first column in the Third Part of the said Eighth Schedule shall be a University constituency.

(3) Each of the constituencies named in the first column in the said Eighth Schedule shall return the number of members stated in the third column, or in the case of Part III., the second column in the said Eighth Schedule opposite the name of the constituency.

Disqualification for membership of the Dáil.

51. —(1) Every citizen of Saorstát Eireann without distinction of sex who is of full age and is not subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in this section shall be eligible to be elected and (subject to taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution of Saorstát Eireann) to sit as a member of the Dáil.

(2) Each of the following persons shall be disqualified from being elected or sitting as a member of the Dáil, that is to say:—

(a) a person who is undergoing a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour for any period exceeding six months or of penal servitude for any term imposed by a court of competent jurisdiction in Saorstát Eireann;

(b) an imbecile and any person of unsound mind;

(c) an undischarged bankrupt under an adjudication by a court of competent jurisdiction in Saorstát Eireann;

(d) a person who is by the law for the time being in force in Saorstát Eireann in relation to corrupt practices and other offences at elections incapacitated from being a member of the Dáil by reason of his having been found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction in Saorstát Eireann of some such practice or offence:

Provided always that the disqualification effected by this sub-section on account of a sentence of imprisonment or penal servitude shall not, in the case of a person who is a member of the Dáil at the date of such disqualification, take effect until the expiration of thirty days from the date of the sentence, or in the event of an appeal, from the date of the order confirming such sentence.

(3) A person shall be incapable of being elected or sitting as a member of Dáil Eireann who is

(a) a member of the defence force of Saorstát Eireann on full pay;

(b) a member of any police force in Saorstát Eireann on full pay;

(c) a person either temporarily or permanently in the Civil Service of Saorstát Eireann unless he is by the terms of his employment expressly permitted to be a member of Dáil Eireann.

(4) If any person who has been duly elected a member of the Dáil should, while he is so a member, become subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in this section he shall thereupon cease to be a member of the Dáil.

(5) This Section shall not come into force until immediately after the dissolution of the present Dáil.

Resignation of membership of the Dáil.

52. —Any member of the Dáil may voluntarily resign his membership thereof by notice in writing to the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, and such resignation shall take effect immediately upon the same being announced to the Dáil by the Ceann Comhairle.

Filling vacancies in the Dáil.

53. —In the case of the death, resignation or disqualification of a member of the Dáil the vacancy thereby occasioned in the Dáil shall be filled by the return of a member in the place of such deceased, resigned, or disqualified member by the electors of the constituency for which the deceased, resigned, or disqualified member had been a member.

Issue of Writs.

54. —(1) If and whenever the Oireachtas shall be dissolved the Clerk of the Dáil shall immediately upon the issue of the Proclamation summoning a new Oireachtas issue his writ to the returning officer in each constituency named in the Eighth Schedule to this Act directing such returning officer to cause an election to be held of the full number of members of the Dáil to serve in such new Oireachtas for the constituency for which he is returning officer.

(2) If and whenever any vacancy shall occur in the membership of the Dáil by death, resignation or disqualification of a member the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil shall as soon as he is directed by the Dáil so to do, direct the Clerk of the Dáil to issue his writ for the election of a member to fill such vacancy, and upon such direction the Clerk of the Dáil shall issue his writ to the returning officer of the constituency in the representation of which the vacancy has occurred directing such returning officer to cause an election to be held of a member of the Dáil to serve in place of the member so dead, resigned or disqualified.

(3) If at any time there shall be more than one vacancy in the representation of any constituency in the Dáil and the Clerk of the Dáil shall be directed at the one time to issue his writs for the election of members to fill all or more than one of such vacancies the Clerk of the Dáil shall issue only one writ to the returning officer of that constituency and shall by such writ direct him to hold one election to fill all the vacancies mentioned in such writ in the representation of that constituency, and the returning officer shall accordingly hold one election only for the election of members of the Dáil to fill all the vacancies mentioned in such writ.

(4) All writs issued by the Clerk of the Dáil under this section shall be in one or other of the forms contained in Part III. of the Fifth Schedule to this Act.

Persons returned for two or more constituencies.

55. —(1) If at a general election any person is returned as a member of the Dáil for two or more constituencies, such person shall, by writing under his hand delivered to the Clerk of the Dáil before taking his seat for any one of such constituencies declare which one of those constituencies he elects to represent in the Dáil, and if he does not so deliver to the Clerk of the Dáil, such declaration in writing within one month after the first day on which the Dáil sits next after such general election he shall be deemed to have elected to represent the constituency in which he received the greatest number of first preferences.

(2) So soon as a person so returned for two or more constituencies elects or is under the foregoing Sub-Section deemed to have elected which of such constituencies he will represent, he shall be deemed to have resigned his seat or seats in each of the other constituencies for which he shall have been so returned.

Candidates at bye-elections.

56. —No member of the Dáil shall, while holding his seat, be eligible to be a candidate at a bye-election to the Dáil.